Islam and the West

Michael Toler and I (along with SSD) traveled to Paris to meet with American University in Paris (AUP) staff and to liaise with the Instutute du Monde Arab (IMA). Celeste Schenck of AUP prepared our way with IMA and was a superb hostess.

The conference on "Islam and the West" was something of a disappointment, especially given my difficulty with both the academic French and the literary Arabic of the formal presentations. Most of these made obvious points: Western travelers to Muslim lands saw only what they were prepared to see, and misunderstood much. Ditto the first Muslim visitors to modern Europe. Eight Moroccan, four Saudi, one Tunisian, and eight European scholars gave papers, and Gov. John Sununu ("ancien secrétaire général de la Maison Blanche") gave the concluding remarks. There were excellent moments and useful contacts in the coffee breaks, but the speakers (with a couple of notable exceptions) were unready to ask hard questions of their societies. We heard enough about the need for dialogue and about the richness of both traditions, but not enough about what's being preached in our mosques, churches, and synagogues at home and discussed in the cafes concerning tolerance and suspicion among our religions. There was little real engagement with current conditions in the USA, despite many mentions of Samuel Huntington (one presentation was subtitled, "Who's Afraid of Bernard Lewis?").

Celeste made a wonderful intervention in Wednesday's final session of the IMA symposium, calling attention (in the middle of an acrimonious exchange about whether the rights of Arab Christians and other minorities in the Arab world are being respected) to the fact that several American professors were visiting in connection with an attempt to set up a collaborative relationship with the IMA and the American University of Paris, an initiative built around a web site. Michael, Susan, and I were all then interviewed by the Moroccan national telephone company RTM, and Susan and I were interviewed by a Libyan journalist -- all this, of course, in Moroccan Arabic.

We didn't see the physical facilities at the American University of Paris, but Celeste suggested we plan to have our summer sessions at the IMA, with AUP handling travel and accommodation and overseeing program arrangements with IMA.

I had the right reading with me. Malise Ruthven's A Fury for God, borrowed from Michael Sells, fit the moment perfectly. I have learned a lot about modern Islamic radicalism and its proponents, and about the late-20th-century runnup to today's issues (cf. groups.colgate.edu/aarislam/msells.htm). I set out this morning to get a copy of Sayyid Qutb's Milestones on the Path (Ma'alim fi'l Tariq), and was pleased to find it online:

If we look at the sources and foundations of modern ways of living, it becomes clear that the whole world is steeped in Jahiliyya (pagan ignorance of divine guidance), and all the marvelous material comforts and high-level inventions do not diminish this Ignorance. This Jahiliyya is based on rebellion against God's sovereignty on earth: It transfers to man one of the greatest attributes of God, namely sovereignty, and makes some men lords over others. It is now not in that simple and primitive form of the ancient Jahiliyya, but takes the form of claiming that the right to create values, to legislate rules of collective behavior, and to choose any way of life rests with men, without regard to what God has prescribed. The result of this rebellion against the authority of God is the oppression of His creatures.

Qutb is powerful, even in translation, e.g., on Surat al Qariy`a (translated as "The Striker"):

This surah starts with the single word "Al-Qari'a" which stands for "the Striker". It is thrown alone like a shot without any further information or any predicate or adjective. As such it creates through its sound and connotations a feeling of resounding awe. The word is immediately followed by a question suggesting something alarming: "What is the Striker?" It is that dreadful and formidable thing which arouses curiosity and questioning. Then comes the answer in the form of a cryptic exclamation, giving no clear indication: "Would that you knew what the Striker is!!" It is too great to be comprehended or imagined. Then follows the answer which states what takes place in it but refrains from stating its exact nature: "The day when men shall be like scattered moths and the mountains like carded wool."

hawiyya is translated "the abyss," and Qutb has this to say about "the scales" on which human deeds are weighed:

It is useful for us to consider the "scales" and their being heavy or light. This means that there are standards which Allah credits with being valuable and others that are valueless. This is the general meaning of the statement which Allah wants to convey. He, however, knows best the exact nature of these "scales". To indulge in a sophisticated, logical and linguistic dispute about the meaning of this term is in itself a departure from the Qur'anic spirit and indicates that the reader is not interested in the Qur'an and in Islam.

I have a strong sense that NITLE/ACC's efforts and IMA's are natural complements, and that we can generate good collaborative projects with AUP. Expect to hear more of these dealings as we plan next summer's NITLE/AUP/IMA event.

Resources

Contemporary Islam: Reformation or Revolution? John L. Esposito. From Oxford History of Islam © 2000 Oxford University Press. NITLE

A fine site at www.youngmuslims.ca has both Qutb's

Milestones and his

In the Shade of the Qur'an. To understand the power of the Arabic, see

Surat al-qari`a (The Calamity), trans. Michael Sells. Approaching the Qur'an: Introduction: The Early Meccan Suras. NITLE.